Three Chinese murdered in Kabul: embassy

Reuters, KABUL

Three Chinese citizens were found murdered in an apartment in Afghanistan’s capital and another two are missing, according to a statement issued by China’s embassy in Kabul carried on a Chinese state-run news agency.

The report said the three were killed on Thursday, but did not say whether the victims were men or women. It said the statement was issued by the embassy late on Friday.

The identity of the victims and motive for the killings were also unclear.

Afghan officials did not respond to calls yesterday, the last day of the three-day Eid al-Fitr public holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The Chinese embassy also did not respond to repeated calls or e-mail.

Photographs of the crime scene showed a cluttered double bed with pink pillows in a dingy room, with bare walls and very little furniture.

The room’s worn red carpet was littered with items like clothes and what appeared to be a power cable.

The attack did not appear to be linked to the huge Aynak copper deposit in Logar Province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan’s largest foreign investment project run by a Chinese consortium.

In November last year, Afghanistan’s minister of mining said that about 150 Chinese workers had returned to the mine after fleeing earlier because of rockets attacks on the project.